In Surprise, Italy's Deficit
Stays Within Euro Targets

ROME -- Italy, which spooked the euro into a slide when it warned in May that it may miss the common currency's budget-deficit target, appears to have made it after all.

Unexpectedly positive data released on New Year's Eve indicated that Italy's 1999 deficit stayed within the euro zone's original target of 2% of gross domestic product, far lower than the 2.4% emergency ceiling conceded to the country by European finance ministers in...